Life After MCITP:SA?

Hi everyone,

I'm writing 70-640 tomorrow and it will be my last exam for the MCITP:SA.

The question now facing me, is what's comes next... I've been in a Help Desk role most of my career and I'm eagerly trying to get out of it and move up a little towards generic Sys Admin type roles; less phones, more actual technical work, etc...

What's a good path/cert to consider? I have no specific tie to Microsoft-only products, though they are more widely used... Linux, perhaps?

Any suggestions or musings would be greatly appreciated!

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Comments

earweed

First, is there room to move up in your compny and does your boss know you're getting these certifications to further your career?
Second, if there's not room to move up you may want to start looking elsewhere. You may have to start elsewhere at helpdesk but at least if it's at a larger company with potential for your growth.
You may even want to start actually getting to know the admins at your company, show some interest and let them know you're hoping to move up from helpdesk. Don't try to impress them with your certs but with your knowledge and willingness to learn new things.
Before pursuing any new cert paths you want to consider a few things:
What do you see yourself doing in a few years?
Will it benefit you either where you're at or where you want to go?
Check other places you may eventually move on to, what do they use?

Good luck on your exam tomorrow!

Hyper-Me

You realize you should have done EA and go back to hitting the books.

JK

(sorta)

IF there is room to move up at your current job, start asking to help with some of the sys admin tasks. If not, just look for a sys admin job elsewhere.

Michael.J.Palmer

If you want to get into the technical side of things with servers and what not then maybe your CCNA/CCENT wouldn't be a bad option. It's actually the route I'll be taking after my MCITP: SA.

phantasm

Michael.J.Palmer wrote: »

If you want to get into the technical side of things with servers and what not then maybe your CCNA/CCENT wouldn't be a bad option. It's actually the route I'll be taking after my MCITP: SA.

CCNA or CCENT won't help with server work. The CCNA and CCENT are networking centric. Find something you like and drive it to death.

If you like systems then go for your MCSE, If you want to be that guy who does the "Jack of all trades master of none" then go for a Linux cert. Otherwise pick certs that will compliment each other. There is no right answer for this question, just like there is no silver bullet.